Research Team >> B.Sc. Alumni >> Dr. Mike Rennie

Dr. Mike Rennie (1998-1999)

Mike Rennie has the distinction of being the first student to work in the Jackson Lab at the University of Calgary and the first undergraduate student to publish his/her B.Sc. project. However, he is most famous for a device he invented to sample macroinvertebrates living on macrophytes – the “Invertebrate Buddy” – a 1950’s scifi lunar module looking device comprised of a 5 gallon pail, complete with handles, a lid to close the large end, rods and landing pads to allow it to sit on the sediments while the final bits of macrophytes that had been swallowed by the Buddy being lowered over them were coaxed into the bucket, and a canvas net with collection cup on the opposite end. It wasn’t just another pretty device either, but rather was quite functional, as Mike outlined in: Rennie MD & LJ Jackson (2005) Patterns in submerged macrophyte structure and macroinvertebrate abundance. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 62: 2088-2099. Mike left Calgary and went to the University of Toronto where he did his M.Sc. (incorporation of mercury into energetics models) and Ph.D. (invasive species and climate change effects on mercury in two whitefish species). He is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at Trent University in Peterborough, where he is doing research on historical food web changes in Lake Simcoe. You can find out more about Mike, including a drawing of the Invertebrate Buddy, at: www.people.trentu.ca/michaelrennie/